This year I have the pleasure of teaching a few classes in the library on library research and resoures. The classes are being offered as specials for grades 6 and 8. Each class will run for 30 days over a twelve week period, alternating with the phys ed classes. The sixth grade course will include study tips and hints along with efficient ways to use the library and locate information. They will also review the Dewey Decimal System of classification of non fiction books so that they can quickly locate books of interest in the non fiction area. At this time a major project will not be a part of the sixth grade course. Rather grades will be based on daily assignments designed to familiarize the students with the Fretz library and how to locate information.

The eighth grade course will be designed to provide the students with opportunities to use resources other than the Internet to locate accurate and correct information. Along with the daily activities, the eighth graders will have a major project of working on an alphabet book about themselves. Details of this project will be distributed to the students by the third time of meeting of the class. Part of the daily activities will be solving mystery scenerios by checking alibis of suspects for facts that the suspects use in their statements about the crime.

Computer resources such as Power Library will be investigated as part of both the sixth and the eighth grade courses.

As this is the first year for such courses being offered at Fretz, the courses are still in their designing phases. I plan on learning along with the students. It is highly possible that the second and third rotations will have a different approach to the course.

I am excited about this opportunity for the students at Fretz.